1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photo printer and a paper mask device for use in the photo printer. Particularly, the present invention relates to a photo printer which can make an index print that shows all frames recorded on one filmstrip, and also to a paper mask device suitable for the index print. The present invention further relates to a photo printer having a subsidiary printing station which may be used either for index-printing or for merge-printing lettering with a pictorial image in a photo print, in addition to a main printing station for printing the pictorial image from a frame on photo film. The present invention relates also to a paper mask device suitable for the subsidiary printing station.
2. Background Arts
Recently, the index print showing all frames of a filmstrip in a row or in a matrix has also been widely known. The index print is made by scanning image data from the frames, displaying composed images of these frames based on the image data on a display screen, e.g. a liquid crystal display (LED) panel, and exposing photographic paper to the composed images through a printing lens. The individual frames in the index print are quite smaller than the ordinary photographs, that is, equal to or smaller than the original frames on the photo film. Hereinafter the frames of the index print will be referred to as index frames.
If all the index frames of one filmstrip should be printed at one time, a large scale display screen or a LED with a large number of pixels would be necessary. The large scale display screen enlarges the photo printer, and the LED with high pixel density is expensive. Therefore, it is conventional to display a limited number of frames, e.g. five frames, as a composed image, and record the limited number of index frames in a line at one time after advancing the photo paper by one step. In this way, an index print is produced as a series of index frames or as a frame matrix, e.g. a matrix of 5.times.5 index frames. For the index-printing, a specific paper mask is used for defining an exposure area for the index frames of one line printed at one time.
FIG. 14 shows an example of index-printing wherein five index frames are printed in a column at one time, and wherein an exposed area 2 of photo paper 3 through an aperture of the paper mask is shown by a solid line. If the paper mask is crooked, index frames 4 are printed at a tilt, for example as shown in FIG. 14, wherein phantom lines show a correct position on the photo paper 3. As the index frames are small, even a slight tilt is conspicuous especially where the index frames are arranged in a matrix. Accordingly, positioning of the paper mask is important for index-printing.
Meanwhile, to produce a post card or a greeting card by merge-printing lettering with a photograph is getting popular these days. The lettering may be merged in a separate location from a pictorial image or the photograph within the card, or may be superimposed on the photograph.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a photo printer that can carry out both merge-printing and index-printing besides the ordinary photograph printing. However, providing a printing station for the merge-printing and a printing station for the index-printing in addition to a main ordinary printing station results in a large scale photo printer.